When we began home schooling and considering building character in our children, we used simple story books, incidental lessons in context of the daily occurences and TV shows like The Adventures from the Book of Virtures. We found that this just was not enough. We were at a loss for where to begin and what to use.

As we prayed about instructing our children, we continually came back to basic Bible pricipals that are timeless. Stories like "Daniel in the Lion's Den", "Shadrak, Meshak and Abednego in the Firey Furnace", "David and Goliath" were just the beginning. It was at that time we were drawn toward Five in a Row Curriculum which included the Christian Character Suppliment. With this we could take our children's stories, include Bible verses as well as character qualities and teach everything in context of quality children's literature..

From this point, we were encouraged, but needed something more. It was at that time when a friend of ours in our local home school group told me about Alpha Omega LIfe Pacs. She mentioned how everything was included in each life pac and although she was talking about the Language Arts curriculum, we thought it was worth a try to ask around about the Bible Curriculum. After consulting some online friends, we decided to go ahead and get the diagnostic test to see where Daniel's abilities were in relation to this curriculum so that we could save money and not purchase something we wouldn't need. With the Bible curriculum, we couldn't be happier. With each Life Pac (there are 10 in each grade level), there are at least 4 Bible Memory verses. While Daniel works on it through his workbook, we work at memorizing each verse by having him write each one 10 times. With this much repetition, he has made remarkable strides at memorization. Now if his mother could memorize the Bible as well as Daniel could! (Ha! Ha! Ha!) :0)

This is not the end of our quest for quality Character Education for our children! :0) We have come upon many other things and utilize them on a regular basis--some more than others.

We purchased Keepers of the Faith guidebooks for Daniel and Heidi to begin working on. Jacob will get his guidebook as soon as he is 6 years old. :0) Daniel's guidebook is called "Contenders for the Faith" and Heidi's is called "Keepers at Home". Each book includes similar experiences for many things and are interchangeable for their activities. So far, we really like the format and have the option of turning it in to a scouting type of activity if we so choose with each child earning badges for the activities. However, I don't think we are going to go that route. We're using them purely as a guide right now.

We have also purchased, for discipline and training, Instructions in Righteousness as well as The If-Then Chartpublished by Doorposts. To see samples of pages from Instructions in Righteousness, click HERE. We've just added the Brother Offended Chart to our collection which has been EXTREMELY effective with our children. Please cllick on the Brother Offended words to see the chart.

While I am sure there are quite a few other discipline and training tools out there, this is what we have experience with. We do not have claim to all the answers for discipline, but we do use the Bible as a reference guide to all situations.